21 First Person Shooters you shouldn't have missed

I own nearly every game mentioned in the article except Duke Nukem which I tried as a demo and it would not run on my PC so I skipped it. The walk down memory lane is nice but the future is bleak. As one who refuses to buy into the Securom Online Activation thats all the rage with Developers now, I find myself in a position where I will refuse to pay $50 for a game I'm told I can only install so many times. I will also not allow the Securom root kit on my PC, and although I have found ways around it in the past, its getting harder to do without joining in with what the Pirates have to offer in the way of circumventing the DRM.

It seems to me that this push to squeeze the paying customer instead of the pirateers, is going to doom the PC game all together. In 2007 I probably bought more than 10 games at $50 a piece, this year I only bought 2 even though there were many I would have bought if they didn't have securom. I suspect the way things seem to be going, I will probably buy no games in 2009 as it appears nearly every game maker has turned to the root kit and decided its easier to tinkle on the paying customer than the pirates, and they do want to tinkle on someone.

What, no Shadow Warrior? You tiny grasshopper! You should try harder get along.

Have to say the omission of F.E.A.R. is darn near unforgivable - it's probably the best FPS ever. Undying may have been critically acclaimed, but as a game it blew chunks often and hard. ROTT was a great game, but for some reason I think of it as much as a platformer as a FPS - must be the vertical element.

Great article, anyway. Thanks. I've owned and played everything mentioned except that Shogo thingy, as I avoid anything with even a hint of anime. Wolfenstein 3D was my first good PC gaming experience after Rogue, and I've never looked back.

I agree, it is impossible to please everyone, and many of the games listed here gave me great moments and great thrills. But I hope Bioshock made you hesitate a lot before excluding it from the "2007 and beyond" as it opens a lot of doors to the creation of future very original FPS.

Thanks for this very interesting topic, it caught my eye at first sight, even if I react to it only today.

The "consensus" for Bioshock seems to be that it was great at setting an atmosphere but gameplay got a tiny bit boring after the first few levels. Then again this could happen to anyone in any given game... All in all, one of the best single player games released in recent times for sure.

The "consensus" for Bioshock seems to be that it was great at setting an atmosphere but gameplay got a tiny bit boring after the first few levels. Then again this could happen to anyone in any given game... All in all, one of the best single player games released in recent times for sure.

Click to expand...

It might also be related to different cultural backgrounds --I mean from different countries-- that some might prefer a game to another one; so we are back to square one: it is impossible to please everyone.

Anyway, you did a great job synthetizing all the FPS from the beginning to today, comparing their merits, and thinking them over to chose from so many. Definately, an article that has to go in TechSpot "have-to-keep-do-not-erase" archives.

It would be great to see an update for the past nine years for those of us who became old and disinterested by about 2000... it might be fun to try a few after all these years.
It seems to me that gaming is a young person's sport.

No Marathon? Bungie's prelude to Halo? It was Mac only but it was light years ahead of the Doom era when it came out.

Click to expand...

I agree, the Marathon Trilogy was great, we only have to look at how many very good sequels were made by fans. Marathon's scenarios were way ahead of many games and when Microsoft bought Bungie, many feared for the originality of the Bungie team. But Halo 1 was a relief, one of the best FPS ever.

By the way, Marathon 2 was issued for PC also. And with AlephOne, every PC can play Marathon games now, although it has aged.

Thanks for not forgetting about a classics like Duke or Doom. Strange to see Shogo or Portal on the list without Monolith's Blood, though.
Anyway, everybody looking for old-school FPS experience is welcomed on the FPS Ports - fps.maros.pri.ee

Also, IMHO, there should be Quake 2/3 in competitive multiplayer section - they had much more impact on today's gaming than tribes.

Excelent article, bringing back good old memories.
I've played Wolf3D 1000 times, and games so called FPS before it... (read: not 3D).
"I stopped" playing games so I have not played the most recent ones (but its not to late).
I do do an effort to play DeusEx and Quake series (always).

although already explained for DeusEx I believe that:-DeusEx (yes its FPS! one of the first if not the first to introduce unique features, and what makes it not be on the list is the reason why it should be on the list)-Delta Force (because of the gaming style, engine, multiplayer...)
these two should have definitely be on the list...

other games that bring good memories (That I can remmeber the names.. lol)-Black Stone: Aliens of Gold****!!!!
-Skynet (terminator stuff)
-Heretic, Hexen
-Descent
-SWAT series (Rainbow Six alike)
-Soldier of Fortune
-Star Trek Voyager
-Alien Vs Predator series

I forgot the name of a old game.. noooooooo! maybe someone remembers...
old game like BlackStone, but it was somewhat magical, with bats, vampire (i think)
we could get out of the "house" to the gardens, day and night effects, curtains...

+lots on Delta Force. DF/DF2 were truly awesome, we played them lots both as multi-room LAN and modem back in teh day... main problems with 56k modem play on FPS's were: it was expensive if you paid by the minute and this was even more annoying if there was a (rich?) sniper in the room...

Destructable scenery was cool.

So was the 'you get shot... you're probably dead' gameplay dynamic. Who needs a 'health' bar? ^_-

might want to update Battlefield 2, on the PC it was 64. on the console I think it may have been 32. the Article says 32. it was 64 max. that is a fact! On the console it was Battlefield: modern combat. on the PC it was Battlefield 2. and they were 2 completey different games.

Source: I played them on Xbox1 and the PC back when they where still consider "new" games.